A snapshot helps you to save the significant amount of time that requires for troubleshooting a system when a virtual machine does not work properly. In this post, we are going to explain how to create and use snapshots in VirtualBox. This is the fifth post of our Getting Started With VirtualBox step by step guide that contains the following tutorials:

Introducing VirtualBox Snapshot

A snapshot allows you to save a particular state of a virtual machine. You can revert back to this saved state anytime. It does not matter how many changes you have done in the virtual machine since then, the virtual machine will be reverted back in the same state as it was at the time of creating the snapshot. A snapshot of a virtual machine is almost similar to a machine in “saved” state. You can create multiple snapshots for a selected virtual machine.

Features of VirtualBox Snapshot

A snapshot provides almost similar features to all the virtualization platforms such as VMware and Hyper-V. However, in the Hyper-V platform, a snapshot is called Checkpoint. The following are some of the interesting key points about the snapshot that you should keep in mind:

A snapshot contains a whole replica of the virtual machine settings, including the hardware configuration.

When you revert a virtual machine into the previous state, the virtual machine settings are also reverted.

The copy of the settings is stored in an XML text file.

The complete state of all the virtual disks attached to the machine is preserved.

If you have taken a snapshot of a virtual machine that was in the running state, the memory state of the virtual machine will also be saved in the snapshot. The size of memory state file is almost same of the virtual machine’s memory size.

Managing Snapshots in VirtualBox

In order to create, revert, and delete snapshots in VirtualBox, you need to perform the following steps:

To work with the snapshots in VirtualBox, select the desired virtual machine and then click Snapshots in the top-right corner.

Here, you will see the various options to manage snapshots. To create a new snapshot, click the Take Snapshot icon. On the Take Snapshot of Virtual Machine box, specify the name and description of the snapshot. Click OK to take the snapshot for the selected virtual machine.

Select the snapshot that you have created. Click the Details icon to show the details of created snapshot

To restore a virtual machine in the previous state, select the desired snapshot and then click the Revert icon. When you restore a virtual machine in the specific state using the snapshot, files that were since created are wiped out. In addition, the files that were deleted are also returned. That is what a snapshot does actually.

If you no longer want to use a specific snapshot, select the snapshot and click the Delete icon to delete it.

That’s all you need to know to manage snapshots in VirtualBox. Hope, you got the basic concept and idea of working with virtual machine snapshots. Do share the article with others as it will encourage us to serve you more articles. If you have something to say, please drop your queries in the comment box.

In the previous posts, we have explained a lot about the VirtualBox. In this post, we will explain how to install Windows 10 in VirtualBox. This is the fourth article of the Getting Started With VirtualBox step by step guide that contains the following step by step tutorials:

Installing Guest OS in VirtualBox

VirtualBox supports a wide range of guest operating systems. However, in this post, we will focus on installing Windows 10 on VirtualBox. Installing Windows 10 on VirtualBox is almost similar as we install it on the other virtualization platforms such as Hyper-V and VMware Workstation/Player. To install Windows 10 on VirtualBox, you need to perform the following steps:

Since in the previous post, we have already created a new virtual machine in VirtualBox, hence we will continue to use the same virtual machine for this post. To install Windows 10 on VirtualBox, you need to perform the following steps:

First of all, you need the installation media (DVD or ISO) of the guest operating system that you want to install on VirtualB0ox. In this case, Windows 10. The most comfortable installation media is ISO. The following figure shows the Windows 10 VM.

To use an ISO image file as an installation source media, click Devices and navigate to Choose disk image option in the VirtualBox VM console. Browse and select the desired ISO image (Windows 10) that you want to use as an installation source.

You may need to reset the virtual machine to restart it if the booting failed message appears. Once the virtual machine has reset, the Windows Setup screen will be displayed.

The installation process is pretty straightforward, just follow the on-screen instructions and complete the installation. However, if you are new to the Windows 10 installation. We have explained all the steps in detail. Keep continue to follow the steps.

On the next Windows Setup screen, click Install Now to proceed.

On the Activate Windows screen, either type the product key if you have or click I don’t have a product key to continue with the evaluation version.

On the next screen, select the desired edition of the Windows 10 operating system and click Next to proceed.

On the License terms page, you know what should you do. Accept the license terms and click Next to proceed.

On the next screen, there are two options: Upgrade and Custom.

Upgrade: Select the Upgrade option if you have an earlier version of Windows OS such as Windows 7 or 8 to want to upgrade to Windows 10.

Custom: For the clean and fresh installation, select the Custom option and proceed to next.

On the disk partition screen, select an existing partition or create a new one and then click Next to proceed.

The installation process starts. It may take 10-15 minutes depending on your system performance. After some time the Get going fast screen Click Use express settings to proceed.

On the next screen, fill the required details to create a user account. Click Next to proceed.

After some time, the Desktop screen displays. Thus completes the installation process of Windows 10 in VirtualBox. Keep continue to use your Windows 10 virtual machine or power off it to perform the next exercise.

In this post, we have explained a step by step guide to install Windows 10 in VirtualBox. We will use this virtual machine to explain the next step by step tutorials. Stay connected to learn more!

If you are a technical professional from the computer networking domain, you must have heard about the Virtualization. If you have heard about the virtualization, then you should also have heard about the VMware, Hyper-V, and VirtualBox virtualization platforms. In this post, we will focus on the getting started with VirtualBox step by step beginner’s guide. However, you can also search the step by step articles on VMware and Hyper-V in our blog.

VirtualBox is an open-source, cross-platform, virtualization solution invented by Oracle. It allows you to run a wide range of guest operating systems including Windows, MAC, Solaris, and Linux.

Step By Step VirtualBox Tutorials

This is not a single post article, actually, it is a series of posts related to getting started with VirtualBox step by step guide. We will start to explain from the beginning to advance. Means from the downloading to the higher level configurations such as creating a virtual machine to cloning and encrypting the virtual machine in VirtualBox. So, let’s start from right now and stay connected until you become familiar with the all of the following articles:

Download Latest Version of VirtualBox

You can download VirtualBox for the various platforms such as Linux, Windows, and MAC. Click the following link to download the latest version of VirtulBox from the VirtulBox official website. When you click the following link, you will be redirected to the VirtualBox official download center.

In the VirtualBox Download Center, you can download VirtualBox for the desired platform. Once you have downloaded VirtualBox, install it on your host machine. The installation process of VirtualBox on a Windows host is pretty straightforward. You don’t need to know much of technical knowledge to download and install VirtualBox. However, installing VirtualBox on a Linux or Mac host can be a tedious job if you are not familiar with these hosts. In our getting started with VirtualBox guide, we will demonstrate the VirtualBox configuration on a Windows system.

Once you complete all the preceding VirtualBox tasks, you should have learned how to download, install, and use VirtualBox virtualization solution.

If you think that we have missed anything that should have been included in our blog posts, please drop your message in the comment box. We will have a look and try to add your on-demand article.

Do share the post to others, so they can also learn what you have learned.

There are various setting options in VirtualBox that can be used to customize and tune a virtual machine. Here, we will cover up all the VirtualBox virtual machine settings options one by one. As you know, this is the third article of our Getting Started With VirtualBox step by step guide. In case if you missed the previous posts, we recommend you to read those posts, so you can understand the setup we are using.

The complete Getting Started With VirtualBox guide contains the following topics:

To configure the various Virtual Machine Settings in VirtualBox, we will perform the following step by step tasks:

Configuring General Settings in VirtualBox VM

First of all, open the Settings window for the desired virtual machine. To open the virtual machine settings in VirtualBox, select the virtual machine and then click Settings.

On the Settings window, the first section is the General The General section has four additional tabs that allow you to set the various settings. The Basic tab allows you to specify the virtual machine name, vendor type, and the version of guest OS.

The next tab is the Advanced It allows you to specify the snapshot folder location and drag-and-drop option between the host and guest machines.

The next tab is the Description tab that is self-explanatory.

The next tab is the Encryption tab. It is almost similar to the BitLocker feature of Windows. It allows you to encrypt a VirtualBox virtual machine. We will cover this feature in the later section.

Configuring System Settings in VirtualBox

Now comes to the System section. The first tab of the System section is Motherboard. Two of the major settings in this section are Base memory and Boot order. The boot order option is important as it allows you set the desired boot option through which the installation of the guest operating system will be done. For now, select the Optical option and move it to one step up.

Next, select the Processor tab. Here, you can set the number of virtual CPUs for the selected VM and enable the NX bit (something that enforces to enable DEP on Windows systems).

Next, select the Acceleration tab. This tab allows you to enable the hardware virtualization and the para-virtualization settings.

Configuring Display Settings in VirualBox

The next section is the Display section. The Screen tab of this section allows you to set the video memory, enable the 3D acceleration, and 2D video acceleration.

The next tab is the Remote Display tab. This tab allows you to set the settings related to the remote connection. However, you need to download and install the compatible version of VirtualBox Extension Pack to use this feature. Installation of VirtualBox Extension Package has been covered in the later section.

The last tab of this section is the Video Capture tab. It is pretty disappointed that the latest version of VMware Workstation no longer allows to capturing the videos of lab exercises. However, VirtualBox now supports this feature that allows you to capture the live steps in a video file. This is really helpful for the training and learning purposes. Review the video capturing options.

Configuring Storage settings in VirtualBox

The next section is the Storage section. Here, you can customize the settings related to the storage devices such as HDD, VHD, and CD/DVD.

Enabling Audio in VirtualBox Virtual Machine

If you want to use the audio feature of your host machine on the VirtualBox virtual machine, select the Enable Audio check box in the Audio section.

Configuring Network Settings in VirtualBox

Understanding network connection type is one of the most essential tasks for every system, server, and network administrator. The Network section allows you to attach the VirtualBox virtual machine to the desired network. Choose the network type that fulfills your requirement.

Configuring Serial Ports Settings in VirtualBox

The Serial Ports section displays the serial posts and their related settings. If required, select the desired settings for the serial ports.

Configuring USB Devices in VirtualBox

The USB section allows you add and remove the USB devices to the VirtualBox virtual machine. The default supported USB version is Version 1.1. In order to use the latest version of USB devices (USB 3.0), you need to download and install VirtualBox Extension Pack.

Configuring Shared Folders in VirtualBox

The next section is the Shared Folders It allows you to share files between host and guest operating systems. To add a shared folder, click the add icon and select the folder of the host machine that you want to share with the selected virtual machine. Specify the folder name. There are two more options in the Add Share dialog box that you should know: Read-only and Auto-mount.

Read-only: Select the Read-only option if you want to share this folder with the read-only permission.

Auto-mount: If you want to mount the shared folder as a network drive automatically inside the virtual machine, select the Auto-mount option.

Configuring User Interface Settings in VirtualBox

The last section is the User Interface It allows you change the settings that affect the user’s behavior and lookup of the virtual machine.

That’s all about the configuring virtual machine settings in VirtualBox. Hope, you have got the basic idea of the virtual machine settings in VirtualBox. As much as you work with VirtualBox, you will become the master of VirtualBox.